Brand Ambassadors

Well, brother, we live in a world that is full of advertisements. Boy, aren't they, though, huh? They're everywhere. Everywhere we look, it seems like someone's selling something, and they're just looking for somebody to buy. They're everywhere! They're in billboards. They're in print media, radio, television commercials. They're all over YouTube videos. They're all over the Internet. Our social media accounts are full of them. They pop up on Google searches. As we've learned in the past few years, they learn from you. They learn from your habits. Even seemingly what you say out loud. I've seen the little meme where you're talking in one room, in your phone, all four of your social media apps are listening at the door. What exactly is it this person wants? We've done that. My wife and I, we've talked about remodeling things, and all of a sudden now we're seeing ads for this or for that that are remodeling-based things. In 2017, studies showed that in comparison with 30 years ago, a person living in New York City saw up to 2,000 ad messages a day compared with 5,000 a day today. That's in five...six now...years...six years since 2017. Or, I'm sorry, 30 years ago was the data for 2,000 ad messages, up to now 5,000 a day. Over half of the people that were surveyed at that time in 2017 felt as though marketing and advertising at that time was out of control. You think about how many of these you see today, and in some ways, marketers in particular, those who are creating these advertisements today, they're dealing with complete sensory overload. Again, everywhere you look, everywhere you turn the radio on, there's an ad, you turn on your computer, there's an ad, there's ads everywhere. They're having to compete in that space to get your attention. They're so prevalent today that the trick of getting the ad to stand out becomes absolutely paramount. They have to find a way to make their ads stand out. We just had the Super Bowl, and traditionally during the Super Bowl, that's when all the ad agencies pull out their big guns. That's when they pull out the big stops and they go full bore. It's a million dollars, a 30-second spot, right? Super expensive. We see all the ads that were out there on the Super Bowl. They know they only have so much time. They've only got 30 seconds to make that connection. So they use color, they use sound, they use senses, they use images. They use short, memorable little jingles or slogans that make that product unforgettable to consumers. How effective is it? Very, very effective. I'm going to rattle off a couple of slogans and jingles, and we'll see if you can come up with the product that's associated with it. Just do it. Nike. Maybe she's born with it. Maybe it's Maybelline. Maybe it's Maybelline. It's the quicker picker-upper. Bouncy paper towels.

McDonald's, right? I'm loving it. Like a good neighbor. State Farm is there. I mean, you guys can finish these, no problem. Give me a break. Give me a break. Break me off a piece of that KitKat bar. I mean, how effective is it? You guys, that KitKat commercial hasn't been on the air in like a decade. Literally. They haven't used that song in like a decade. They are iconic, iconic advertising campaigns. The music, the phrasing, the repetitive nature of that advertisement, they've managed to cement these products, these services, and these companies in the collective psyche of society. Now, over the years, many of these companies and these corporations have formed partnerships with famous individuals to help design and sell their products.

They call these individuals brand ambassadors. So these individuals are brand ambassadors, and they have an endorsement with this company, and their role, their job, is to present this company in a positive light. To drive sales, to bring awareness and growth to the brand. Makeup companies bring on models, they bring on singers, some of which have their own personal line of makeup products. Athletic wear companies bring on sports stars, various players for endorsement contracts, helping to make their company that premier sports line.

Michael Jordan and the Jordan brand of Air Jordan Nike sneakers are probably the best known example of that in the celebrity endorsement world, but it happens with a lot of athletes, it happens with musicians, sports stars, now influencers, you know, online influencers and things, and the like. Now in all of these circumstances, these companies have concluded that bringing these individuals in with an endorsement contract brings enough sales, brings enough positive impact, brings enough awareness to their brand that they're willing to spend money for the return that these people will bring in.

Now in recent years, we've also seen the opposite of this. We've seen a number of companies that have cut ties with their celebrity endorsers, because the celebrity says something or does something that might tarnish the image of the company in the eyes of the consumer. Agree with it or not, we see the winds of cancel culture out there in the world around with this, I think we can understand why a company might want to cut ties with someone that doesn't represent their brand in the way that they desire to represent it. Probably the most recent and probably most public of these was Kanye West.

Kanye West kind of went on a Twitter rant that had a bunch of anti-Semitic comments in it, and Adidas dropped his Yeezy brand of sneakers from their product line. That cost Mr. West an estimated billion dollars in revenue from the contract, and not only that, it made a challenge for Adidas to turn around and clear out a bunch of shoes that had already been made.

In fact, according to Adidas, they stand to lose $1.3 billion in this deal, too. So it cost him a billion, it cost them $1.3 billion, but they cannot, after what he did and said, sell those shoes. At least, for them, they can't do that. Nike recently suspended their contract with Kerry Irving over something similar. He shared a link to Twitter with a video filled with anti-Semitic comments.

So we have these things going on in the world around us today, and that's just a couple of examples of individuals that were in the news most recently. But companies have a long history of disassociating with representatives or employees whose antics bring the brand into disrepute. Individuals who might be negatively impacting the company and its products. Marketing and the resulting advertising that comes from it is a $266 billion-a-year industry. $226 billion a year. And as a result of that kind of money being spent, they are constantly evaluating the effectiveness of these ads.

They're going through and they're looking at how exactly are we advertising? Is this working? Is it yielding results? There's a whole career-based built around it called market attribution. And market attribution's job is to analyze the tactics and determine whether they're yielding results or not. Is it worth the money that's ultimately being spent for this? Let's turn over today to begin to the book of 2 Peter. 2 Peter. We've been going through the general epistles in our online studies during the midweek study. It's really interesting at times, I think, to see just how similar the times of Peter, Paul, and John, those individuals that were writing later in the New Testament as things were beginning to spiral out of control, but beginning to change, beginning to have some shifts in the way that things were being done.

It's interesting to see some of the parallels to that time and the time in which we live today. Some of the challenges that face the church, both externally at that time and internally, have a degree of parallel to this era of the modern church, and certainly parallels that would become more of a reality as we get closer to the time of the return of Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 2 and verse 1 through 3, one of these parallels that we see is the injection of false teachings, a perverting of the true gospel of Jesus Christ. In our last study that we did just recently, we took a look at this in 2 Peter and kind of generally what it's discussing.

Frequently, when we deal with these sorts of things, falsehood that is just outright is really easy to spot. It's really easy to spot an outright falsehood, but when you have falsehoods that are mingled with truth, when it's couched with that which kind of sounds true, it becomes significantly more difficult to spot.

And a number of you experienced this directly in your lifetime. A number of you saw this when the World Wide Church of God began to change doctrine in the mid-90s. It was through degrees and measures. It wasn't a situation in which it was a cataclysmic shift from Saturday to Sunday overnight. It was in degrees and measures. A little here, a little there, a degree here, a half degree there, a full degree here, and pretty soon, you know, it was easier for some to stomach that change. And before long, the water was boiling. But 2 Peter 2, verses 1 through 3, we'll see what Peter warns his readers about.

What Peter is warning his readers about. 2 Peter 2 and verse 1 says, But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. Verse 2, many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed.

By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words. For a long time, their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber. Peter's providing a warning for readers of his epistle, and ultimately to us down through history, that just as Israel had its share of false prophets, you go back and you look through time of Jeremiah, you go back and look through the time of the kings, there were false prophets that existed at that time in Israel, men who prophesied as to the covetous desires of their own hearts, and not as the Spirit of God moved them, he said, so too would there be false teachers during the first century.

Individuals who were motivated by their own desires, who would secretly, and interestingly the Greek word there, means to smuggle. They would smuggle in destructive heresies. They would smuggle these things in. Even it says, denying the Lord who redeemed them, speaking here of Jesus Christ. He goes on to speak of their destruction, and the Greek word for destruction here, apoleia, has a sense of something that is so damaged it's beyond repair, or it no longer exists.

Absolute destruction, annihilation, is what it's really talking about here. Peter states that many will follow those destructive ways, and because of this, because of that action, that the way of the truth would be blasphemed. That it would be brought into disrepute. That because of this destructive heresy that was brought in, because of the actions and the many who followed them, that the way of truth, and by extension, the name and reputation of God, would be blasphemed. William Barkley, in his daily study Bible series on 2 Peter 1, verses 1 through 3, writes the following on pages 317 to 318.

Barkley states, the heretics in Peter's letter were denying the Lord who bought them. That could mean that they were saying they did not know Christ, and it could mean that they were denying His authority. But it's not as simple as that, and one might say it's not as honest as that. We've seen that these men claimed to be Christians. More, they claim to be the wisest and the most advanced of Christians. It says, let us take a human analogy, Barkley says. Suppose a man says that he loves his wife, and yet is consistently unfaithful to her.

By his acts of infidelity, he denies, gives the lie to, his words of love. Suppose a man protests eternal friendship to someone, and yet is consistently disloyal to him. His actions deny, or give the lie to, his protestations of friendship. Barkley says, what these evil men who were troubling Peter's people were doing was to say that they loved and served Christ, while the things that they taught and did were a complete denial of him.

The Book of Jude speaks to similar challenges. We see in the Book of Jude that there were challenges that would take place at the time of the end. He admonishes the faithful, those who are called, who are sanctified by the Father and preserved in Christ, to earnestly contend for the faith once delivered, to stand fast against these things, and to preserve the truth of God. Now, sometimes I think when we think of things like this, what we think of are huge changes in doctrine. We tend to look outward for these things. We tend to look outward for these things.

And so we're looking and we're watching for the big change, which is what we need to be doing, right? We need to be seeing these things. But frequently, these big changes come about as a result of small changes. You might say, mission creep or drift, if you will. In Matthew 7—let's turn over there—Matthew 7, verses 21-23, Christ points out to those gathered at the Sermon on the Mount.

Christ gets up. He stands before the multitudes that are gathered there. In Matthew 7, 21-23, we see his words recorded.

Christ says, Matthew 7, verses 21-23, He says, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? Have we not cast out demons in your name? Have we not done many wonders in your name?

Verse 23, Jesus Christ replies, And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me you who practice lawlessness. There's a parallel account in Luke 6, in verse 46, that states it a little differently. You can turn there if you'd like. He says, Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do the things which I say? Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do the things which I say? Christ's point to those gathered, that hypocrisy, that great sin that was levied on the Pharisees, is a denial too. It's just not the way we would think of a denial, necessarily. There are times in our lives in which we may desire something different from what we see in Scripture.

We may not wish to fulfill God's will for us due to a conflict with our own will or our own desires. In these circumstances, the message that we're sending God is that what we want is more important to us than what He wants for us. Barkley goes on in page 319 of the same section. He says, This false teaching had a second effect. It brought Christianity into disrepute.

In the early days, just as now, every Christian was a good or a bad advertisement for Christianity and the Christian Church. Now, if our lives are either good or bad advertisements for Christianity, then what Christ is saying in Matthew 7 and Luke 6 is that there are some brand ambassadors, we might say, who, when He comes, will not have their contracts renewed. May it lose their endorsement contract, so to speak. That they will no longer be allowed to represent the brand because they brought it into disrepute. It got me thinking as I was preparing this message and going through the study, with the spring holy days coming up very quickly, in our Passover examination, beginning and continuing in earnest at this time, I like to ask hard questions at this time of year, and not just of you, but of myself as well.

It's hard question season in our examination process. I think it's worth taking some time to consider and ask ourselves how we're doing on this front. Market attribution, the science of studying the effectiveness of advertising campaigns, relies on a number of factors to determine whether an ad campaign has been successful or not. Frequently, these revolve around sales and shareholder value. Most companies, it's that bottom dollar that is the official, like, hey, our shares went up, shareholders are happy, it was successful. That's the method. But there's other methods that they use to determine whether it's been successful or not.

How much value did it provide to the brand? Did it provide awareness or growth of that brand in the public's eye? Sometimes those things can be enough that the ad campaign is deemed successful after all. The title of the message today is Brand Ambassadors. When it comes to evaluating the effectiveness, there's three primary metrics that get used. One of those is return on investment, the other is brand awareness, and the last one is the growth of the brand overall.

That's return on investment, brand awareness, and growth of the brand. With the time that we have left, I'd like to explore these facets in light of our own Passover examination and God's expectation of his representatives. When we stop starting with return on investment, when we stop to consider the calling that we've been provided, we have to recognize that God made a significant investment in each and every one of us. This is not something haphazard, this is not something that's just minimal.

It's a significant investment. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 6. 1 Corinthians 6, and we'll go ahead and pick the passage up here in verse 19 of 1 Corinthians 6. 1 Corinthians 6, just to get a feel for exactly what that price was that was paid for us and what that means for us. 1 Corinthians 6, we'll pick it up in verse 19. Paul here is talking about sexual immorality contextually, but he's bringing up other principles and other contexts also.

1 Corinthians 6, verse 19, says, 2 Corinthians 6, verse 19, says, When we accepted the calling of God, when we committed to Him in baptism and when we received God's Holy Spirit, we became gods. At that point in time, we became purchased. And in that sense, we're not our own. In that sense, we're not our own. Granted, we're in control. You know, we have the decisions, we make the choices, all of that. But in that sense, God purchased us back from death.

And so it is His Son's blood that enabled us to be able to do that. In fact, Paul, again speaking to sexual immorality here, is talking about the joining of ourselves to the Lord through our redemption and our being brought back from death through the blood of Jesus Christ. And as a result, the price that was paid for us to be able to be reconciled to Him was the death of His Son. That was the price that enabled each and every one of us to be able to come to Him in a reconciled state. To be able to come to Him in repentance.

To be able to come before His throne for the mercy that He provides. It's through the death of Jesus Christ that we're capable of doing that. It's through that price that was paid for us. And Paul's point to those in Corinth here, in particular due to the issues they were facing, but in general as well, is that because of that price, we're on our own. We were purchased by God, and so therefore He says we must glorify God in our body and in our spirit, which is God's.

So in that sense, brethren, there has been a significant investment that has been made in us. And what we see from Scripture is that the expectation of God is that there is a return on that investment. That ROI, which is the term for that ROI, return on investment, is one of the categories that's looked at to determine whether an advertising campaign or a brand ambassador is effective. You know, if you spend $150,000 to bring on Kanye West to the Adidas brand, which they spent way more than that, and he only brings in 25 grand. He only sells 25 grand worth of shoes.

At some point, somebody's going to go, hmm, hmm, it's not working out. It's not penciling out. Typically, it's an accountant somewhere that says, you've got to drop Mr. Yeezy. So the company wants to ensure that it's making the money on its investments. They want to ensure that it's being multiplied on the return side. And similarly, we see that of God, too. Let's turn over to Matthew 25. And we'll take a look here at the parable of talents.

You're welcome to follow along. I'm not going to read it verbatim. I'm going to skim through it, actually. In verse 14 and going through verse 29, we see the principle of this concept of return on investment applied, outlined. You know, what we see take place is we see that Christ outlines the kingdom of God as a master who called his servants to him, delivered his goods to him, or to them, rather.

And we find out that as we go through this, really, this parable is a parable that has very little to do with money. You know, the reality is this is very much something... very, very much else about spiritual principles. But what we see is that he gave to one servant five, he gave to one servant two, and he gave to another servant one. Master went away with the instruction to those individuals that they should do business until he returns.

And that's when he returned, the servant with five presented his increase. He'd made five again. The servant with two presented his increase. He had increased it by two. The servant with one returned. What his master initially gave him with no increase. What we see as we read through the scripture and as we read through the parable is that the amount of increase wasn't necessarily critical. Didn't really have a lot to do with... I mean, the expectation wasn't that the one who had two had to gain five.

You know, that wasn't the expectation. The expectation was increase. The expectation was that they were doing something with what they were provided. That they were doing, as Mr. Miller brought out a couple of weeks ago, good works. That they were using what God had given them to be able to do those things. In both circumstances, the first servant and the second servant doubled the investment that they provided. And the other servant was deemed to be wicked and lazy due to his lack of work and effort.

That individual had their talent taken from them and given to the one who gained five. Because he didn't grow and increase what his master had given him. Now, what's interesting here is the word unprofitable, which is the Greek word achryos, is G888, if you want to look it up later. It's actually a lot stronger word than unprofitable. It actually means worthless.

It means useless. So it's saying that the servant that didn't produce, didn't increase, didn't grow, according to here, is useless. It's worthless. It's not just unprofitable. It's like there's no use for it. There's no worth to it. In fact, we see the ultimate end here is that that servant is cast into outer darkness because of their unprofitability in that sense. So what we get from this, the point, and really our critical takeaway from this, is that the expectation of God on his investment is ROI.

He expects a return on his investment. He expects us to grow. He expects us to increase. That we will do with what we've been given. We'll take it and we will ultimately multiply those results. And so as brand ambassadors, we're in kind of a unique place to be able to do this because people see our lives.

People see our example. They see how we're growing. They see how we're progressing. They see how we're multiplying the things that God has given us. So begs the question, what has God invested in us? What has God invested in us? What has he given us that he expects us to multiply and to return? Well, one of the things that he's given us that he expects us to multiply and return is grace and forgiveness.

We've been provided grace and forgiveness through the blood of his son. We see while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. We see that his blood reconciles us to the Father. Is that where it stops? Is that the expectation? That's all we have to do. We just have to make sure we're good with God and that's it. Or is there more there? Does God expect that we're going to increase that investment in some way?

I'm going to have you write three scriptures down. I'm going to read them real quick. Colossians 3, verses 12 through 13. Colossians 3, verses 12 through 13. Ephesians 4, verse 32. Ephesians 4, verse 32. And Matthew 6, verse 12. And verse 14. Matthew 6, verse 12. And verse 14. Colossians 3, verses 12 through 13 reads, Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering, bearing with one another, and forgiving one another.

If anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. Ephesians 4, verse 32. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.

Matthew 6, verse 12. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Verse 14. If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. Verse 15. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. God's invested in us His grace. He's invested in us through the forgiveness of our debt. And it's His expectation that this investment will grow, that it will be extended to others, that we will offer this to other individuals, that through Him, this brand, this concept of true grace and forgiveness, not the grace the world teaches, not the grace the world teaches, but true grace and forgiveness, which are critical aspects of His character, will ultimately grow and be multiplied on the earth through His saints, through those whom He's called.

The other thing He's invested in us is His Holy Spirit, His Holy Spirit and His godly character. 2 Corinthians 1, if you want to turn back there, 2 Corinthians 1, we'll pick it up in verse 21. 2 Corinthians 1 and verse 21.

Sorry, 2 Corinthians 1, not first. 2 Corinthians 1 and verse 21 says, God invested in us, each of us, a measure of His Holy Spirit. He's provided each of us a measure. He's provided it as a deposit, an earnest money, so to speak, on the fulfillment of a greater purchase to come and a further purchase. But His expectation of that investment, His expectation of that deposit, is growth. Multiplication, increase, that will yield ourselves to it, that will grow in the fruit His Spirit provides in our life. We've been going through those in our congregational studies.

You're looking at Galatians 5, 22-23, talking about these fruits and their effect in our life. Things like love and joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. These things are the increase of the deposit of God's Spirit in us, as we're developing, as we're yielding ourselves to it, these aspects of His character. Again, that small portion that's been invested in each of us, the expectation is growth. That expectation is ROI. There are so many more things that God has invested in us. I would encourage you that as you go through your Passover examination, think about the things that God has invested in us. Think about the things that He's expecting an ROI on, that He's expecting growth in, that He's expecting increase.

Each of these talents that we've been provided with, and what it is that He expects us to do with them, how we're going to positively increase these things and positively represent His brand and all that that brand entails. Another metric that gets used to determine the effectiveness of advertising campaigns and endorsements is brand awareness.

Brand awareness is the example of what we looked at at the beginning. I rattle off half the slogan, you finish it. That's brand awareness. That it's in the collective awareness of society, that they recognize and recall a brand under various conditions. In fact, it's interesting. They've done studies where they completely mangle the logo.

It doesn't even look the same. It's just the color palette's the same. The design is completely different, and based on that, people can tell, just based on the colors and the way the color scheme is used, what it is. Certain red, yellow, even if it's not in the shape of a golden arches, pick it out as McDonald's every single time. Those two colors are just iconic. They're just iconic. They can identify that brand by sight, by sound, or by word.

That's brand awareness. One of the measures of success of advertising is the increase of brand awareness. Do more people recognize and identify the brand as a result of that ad campaign, or as a result of its ambassadors? Let's go to 2 Corinthians. We're already there. Let's go just a couple pages over here to 2 Corinthians 5. The Apostle Paul wrote regularly about these concepts to the churches that he had responsibility over. Particularly in locations we see where there were high Gentile populations. Obviously, that was many of the churches that Paul had responsibility over, but the concept that he uses is the concept of an ambassador.

That's the term that is utilized. The Greek word is prisbeiouo, which actually comes from the root word prisbeiteros, which is the word that's used for elder, or an older person. It can be translated both ways. An older person or someone who is ordained to that capacity. It can be translated in that way. What it's getting at is an ambassador, they're talking about it as like an elder statesman. Are you familiar with that concept of an elder statesman? You think about elder statesman in the world around us. What does that look like? What does it entail? An elder statesman is someone who's experienced, someone who's well-respected. Now, in our worldly definition, it is connected to politics.

Typically, it's somebody who is politically engaged. But the difference between a politician and an elder statesman is that an elder statesman is someone who has influence as a result of their experience, and that person rises above normal politicking. If that makes sense. They have influence, but they don't have to go lobby for it. People come to them, they look to them. They have a certain degree of influence in that system. And it's kind of in that sense that Paul's talking about ambassadors in 2 Corinthians 5.

2 Corinthians 5 and verse 17. We'll begin in verse 17 in 2 Corinthians 5. Again, thinking about brand awareness, thinking about that connection and recognizing of a brand. 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 17. It says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

Old things have passed away. Behold, all things, it says, become new. Now, all things are of God, who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, that God was in Christ reconciling. So he defines it, what this ministry of reconciliation is. This message of reconciliation. That is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

Now then, we, verse 20, are ambassadors for Christ, and Pres. Poteo, ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled, he says, to God. Be reconciled to God. Committed to us has been the ministry of reconciliation, the service, the message of reconciliation, the idea that God is reconciling the world to himself. That God is in that process, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, to bring those that he is calling to him. That he is giving that opportunity, not even just those that are being called now, but all of mankind at some point in time.

He goes on in verse 20, he says, be reconciled to God. Verse 21, he says, For he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. As ambassadors of Christ, we are a new creation. The old things have passed away. God has reconciled us to himself through Christ, provided us with this message of reconciliation.

As the example of this, we are ambassadors to the world. We are ambassadors to the world of this message of reconciliation. Sometimes when you talk to people, they like to point out the hypocrisy of Christianity. That's frequently the argument that comes back against Christianity. That's the beauty of a message of reconciliation. We're not perfect. God is. And he's giving us the ability to be reconciled to him through the death of his son. That's what's enabling us to be able to even do that. It's nothing any of us did. Nothing any of us did. But what God is asking us to do is to show the world through our example in our life that reconciliation works.

That it is effective. That we would be a walking billboard, so to speak, of what God is doing in our lives. That we would represent the brand well. That we would be an elder statesman or an ambassador of God. You're on the tail of Paul's admission to the church in Ephesus to gird themselves with the armor of God in Ephesians 6 verse 17. If you want to turn over there, you can. Ephesians 6 verse 17. He shifts kind of slightly and starts to talk about the boldness by which he made known the mystery of the gospel.

Ephesians 6 and verse 17. Again, coming right off the heels of the armor of God section here. Verse 17 says, take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end, with all perseverance and supplication for the saints. And then he kind of brings it personal in verse 19. And from me, he says, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that in it I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.

Paul, at this point, was under house arrest. He was seeking the prayers of the people in Ephesus for his situation. Note, not that he might get out of it. He doesn't say once in there that he might get out of it. What he asked for was that utterance would be given to him, that he might open his mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel.

To who? To his imprisoners. To those who were interacting with him. To the magistrates that he was being drugged in front of for his court. You know, to be able to have these conversations in this situation. The mystery of the kingdom of God, the reconciliation of man to God through the blood of Jesus Christ, as an ambassador in chains. As an ambassador, it's our job to represent this each and every day.

It's our job to represent this to be the ones whom God speaks to, speaks through, even, and to one another as well. To really be a light in the darkness. And sometimes that doesn't come through bold speech. Sometimes it doesn't come through bold speech. Sometimes it comes, more frequently, as a result of a life that's well-lived. It comes through the example that we set. Brand ambassadors represent the product through their interaction with that product through their display of it.

And the effectiveness of the advertising in those circumstances is the people seeing that person using that product in their life, and then wanting to use it themselves. 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 12, calls this, walking properly toward those who are outside. 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 12. The New Living says, people who are not believers would respect the way you live. In a different way, I'd your guess put it a little differently, saying I'd rather see a sermon than hear one any day. Some of you might be thinking the same thing right now.

Sometimes the most powerful example that we can provide to others is to live a reconciled life well. It's been said before, our life may well be the only scripture that someone else reads. It's a responsibility. It's an important responsibility. So as we think about, again, as we come into this self-examination process coming into the Passover, as we're in that process, either just beginning it or going through it now, how well do we represent the way of God to the world around us?

How well do we represent the way of God? Are we an example to those that we interact with? Is there a degree of hypocrisy in our lives? Are we improving aspects of brand awareness, or how can we improve some of these aspects of brand awareness over the coming year? What are some things that we can do?

What are some things that we can look at to perhaps represent this brand in a better way this coming year? The final metric that's used is whether the brand ambassador of the advertising campaign contributes to the growth of the brand. Now, we recognize, rightly so, that when it comes to the growth of the brand, or we might say the family of God and its characteristics, that ultimately the growth is largely out of our hands.

We need to realize that. We need to recognize that. God calls people to the truth. No man can come to Christ unless the Father draws him. That's what Scripture says. Scripture's clear. But we do have a responsibility for putting the gospel message out. We have a responsibility for preaching the gospel. We have a responsibility of making sure that we don't get in the way of that process. Mr. Dick gave a sermon to the GCE a number of years ago on the GCE weekend.

I think it was probably back in... Well, man, it might even have been 2009, 2008. It's been a long time ago now. But he discussed the importance of doing a work, that it was so critical for us to be doing a work. And it is. But his emphasis and his point was that in order to do a work, we must first become a work. That it requires us to become a work first, before we can ever consider doing a work. If we represent a specific brand, we have to become that brand in a certain sense. You would not catch Michael Jordan wearing Adidas shoes. That's not going to happen.

At least not in public. He may wear them at home. But he's not going out in public in a pair of Adidas shoes, because his contracts are with Nike. You're not going to see that.

Becoming a work follows naturally from the previous two metrics. So as we look at those previous two metrics, becoming a work kind of follows from those things. It helps to foster growth of the brand. If we are increasing the investments that God has provided us, if we're growing in grace, if we're forgiving others as we've been forgiven, if we're yielding ourselves to God's Spirit, and we're building those fruits of the Spirit in our life, kind of taking that investment that we've been provided and growing it until we see abundant fruit, then we reach that point that is described in Matthew 5 and verse 14.

Let's go over to Matthew 5 and verse 14. We'll reach this point, and we'll see this point. Matthew 5 and verse 14. Again, during the Sermon on the Mount, Christ takes the time to describe this concept, and I want you to think about this. I want you to put yourself for a moment in the shoes of the average person living in Judea at this time, when this was going to be put. You know, today, we're very skewed in a very different way, because we live in a very electric world.

But think about putting yourself in that place. No electricity. Zero electricity. The light that you had came from fires. It came from oil lamps. It came from torches. That's it. That's all you had. You couldn't flip the light switch on. You couldn't turn the bulb on. Christ says, Matthew 5, verse 14, it says, You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.

Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand. And it gives light to all who are in the house. Verse 16, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Before the days of constant electric power, the world was a dark place. Some of you may remember not having electricity in certain parts of things growing up.

We're getting just about past that. We're almost there where some of those folks don't remember growing up in non-electric homes. But I don't mean that the world was dark in the sense of it being evil. It was just dark.

There weren't lights everywhere. You didn't have light pollution like you have today. You can't hardly see the stars in most large cities today. Barely see the stars in most large cities. The only light you had was, again, fire, oil lamps, torches, and whatever came from the moon and the stars. That was what you had at night.

So when you had large groups of people that were gathered together, when you had cities or towns, those lights in those windows would be visible for a distance, as that house was illuminated inside with oil lamps or fires or whatever else. Jerusalem, which is the city that Christ is referring to here, was a large city that sat at about 2500 feet above sea level. And so much of Judea, the roads that led into Jerusalem, were roads that led upward toward Jerusalem. They were on an incline.

And with an area that wasn't polluted with light like our modern cities, a city on a hill in a distance like that would be illuminated for miles and miles and miles. You could see it coming from a very long distance away. Those lights helped people find their way. They provided a great deal of comfort to those individuals who saw it in the darkness. Why is that? Because they knew that they could soon rest their heads and they could undo their burdens.

They were almost there. You know, you could see it in the distance. We can't put our light under a basket. We can't. We have to let it shine before men so that they might see the good works that we do and glorify not us, but our Father who is in heaven. As brand ambassadors, this positive representation of the brand is critical. But again, if instead, as brand ambassadors, we do things that are in opposition to that brand, if we're rude, disrespectful, we have outbursts of anger, live hypocritical lives, we say one thing, profess one thing, but we do another, then we're causing a negative view of this brand.

We're causing disrepute. We're causing these things to be negative, and we're driving people away instead of bringing people towards it. In verse 13 of Matthew 5, just before what we just read, Christ illustrates the results of this. Matthew 5 verse 13, he says, "...you are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men." That's a hard thing to hear! That's a tough thing to hear.

But if salt loses its flavor, if it loses the very quality that makes it what it is, it's not any good for seasoning anymore. You can put it all you want in soup, it's not going to do anything. It's just going to be crunchy. You know, big enough pieces of it. What they would do is they'd throw it off to the side of the road, because it would still kind of keep the weeds down a little bit, and they could toss it off to the side of the road in that way. Similar to companies that utilize brand ambassadors as part of their endorsement deals today, if we negatively impact the brand, if we cause that brand to be called into question, or it becomes associated with our poor choices or behavior, or we're unwilling to change, we may find ourselves no longer representing the brand. And that's an important thing for us to consider, because all of us are striving toward the kingdom of God. All of us are working toward that eventuality. All of us desire to attain the kingdom of God.

We've been called to a way of life that requires us becoming more like our Father and our elder brother Jesus Christ. Becoming more like them, their love, their character traits, their way of life. That makes up their brand. It makes up who they are. And we've been called to be ambassadors of that brand to this world. Our success in this is going to depend on a few things. It's going to depend on our return on investment. Whether we take the things that God has invested in us, and multiply and increase and grow these things toward others. Will we show grace? Will we forgive others? Will we grow in and increase the fruit of God's Spirit in our lives doing these good works? Will we align ourselves with His will, and not what we want for ourselves? Will we do what He asks us to do? That all depends on us serving as an ambassador, as an elder statesman, rising above the things of this world, using our godly character, our experience, and our influence to affect change in those around us. It's also going to depend on letting our light shine. Whether or not we're going to let that light shine, be the person that God has called us to be. Shining that light into the darkness around us, showing that way of life in action. Or, do we put a basket over it? Do we hide it? Do we keep it quiet? Yearly, brethren, we go through the process of self-examination as we prepare for the Passover season. This is something that we are instructed to do in Scripture. This year, brethren, let us take the time to really consider how well we're representing the brand that we've been called to be ambassadors to. And, if we conclude that change needs to be made in humility, let us come before Him and repent and go forward in the way of truth.

Thank you.